Omnomicon

Weeks 2 & 3 of our CSA harvest were pooled with everyone else’s share because we were in California. But week 4 we had all to ourselves, as Heather & Jon (our share partners) were still in California on pick up day, so that’s almost like only missing the one share, hooray! Here’s what it looked like:

WE HAVE (roughly left to right)

• 1 bunch dill
• 10 radishes (1/2 lb), with leaves
• 2 pints peas
• All the nasturtiums I cared to pick (did not find out they were edible flowers until they had been wilting in a vase for awhile)
• 1 head bibb lettuce
• 1 lb bok choy
• 8 garlic scapes,garlic chives, or whatever your farmer’s market or CSA calls them
• 1 bunch cilantro
• a big old buncha collard greens
• 1 bunch scallions
• 2 kohlrabi
• 1 head red lettuce

Our cost for a half share is $14.20. Half of the above is worth about $15.03, or $17.53 if you count the flowers, which I do because I buy flowers for the house regularly. It should also be taken into consideration that these are organic vegetables (which drives up the price of the share) and I’m comparing to conventional vegetables at grocery store prices (which is what I’d most likely be buying if I didn’t have a share). We haven’t yet broken even, as I miscalculated the last share, but I think we’ll get there.

This week’s harvest brought a few new veggies to my kitchen, which was the real draw of this little experiment, and I suspect I’m not alone in this. I’d been itching to get my hands on garlic scapes ever since our farmer mentioned them at the orientation two months ago (those weird circley vine-looking things at the top . . . just to the right of the center . . . don’t see them? Yeah, they don’t really stand out) and they are incredible! They taste pretty much like chives, except with a garlicky bite that doesn’t even leave an aftertaste. Totally refreshing! I tried cooking with them here and there, but I found that no matter how much I added, their flavour seemed to wash out. Moving forward, these are being used like regular chives—chopped and sprinkled atop.

The other new veggie was kohlrabi. This is a funky-looking veggie, and I had high hopes for its flavour to be equally funky, but alas, it works like water chestnuts or cucumber or other bland veggies. Still, one cup has like 35 calories, 5 g fiber and 140% of your vitamin C. So whoah, it’s good for you.

Lettuce is lettuce, but yay for fancy lettuce!

We’re finally starting to get some herbs and I’m so excited about this. I love love fresh herbs. Love them. So much. Mmm!

And though radishes aren’t the most flavourful of vegetables ever, the purple ones had this beautiful sheen on them, like a purple satin with a golden sheen as it moves. Really, so beautiful.

But the biggest surprise were peas. Now anybody who’s known me any length of time knows I hate peas, but as it turns out, fresh-from-the-vine peas out-of-the-pod are incredible. They taste, not like the mushy gross woody-tasting crap I remember from my childhood, but unbelievably sweet, like fresh sweet corn. It was, to reuse a word, unbelievable. Of course, in like, two days, they’d become gross woody-tasting crap I remember.

And those are vegetables! Dano really liked this shot, but I thought it was harder to make everything out than the one at the top. My compromise was to include it at the end.

So tell me, which veggie shot do you like better?

Metrowest CSA season has officially commenced! We are in the green:

I took photos of the entire share, but are splitting down the middle for each. Pictured, roughly left to right (thought difficult to pick out where one ends and the next begins):

• a fistful of beet greens
• 8 oz mixed salad greens
• fistful of turnip greens
• 10 Easter egg radishes (so named for their colourful variety)
• 2 heads lettuce (not sure on the type)
• 8 oz arugula
• 8 oz bok choy
• and in the very center there, baby turnips, which we already went over last Friday.

Beside the enjoyment of delightfully fresh veggies, one of my intentions with this stuff is to get an idea of its worth. Our half share costs about $14.20 for each weekly pickup from June through October, assuming we continue to harvest through then.

So as it turns out, baby turnips are priceless (in the literal, you can’t buy them way), and you have to buy the beet to get the beet greens, and radishes don’t come with tops. But my estimate is around $18.19 for similar amounts of conventionally-grown (the farm is organic, you see) veggies at Stop & Shop. S&S didn’t have enough of an organic variety to make a reliable estimate. So my return this week was about -$5.11. This is still VERY early season, and I’m quite optimistic for the rest of it!

The end!

I’ve been hinting at my first CSA season, which officially commenced last night. While things are still lean around here (lots of leaves, not much in the way of solid vegetables), there are some interesting perks that come with the early season. The first would appear to be these baby turnips, which are nutty and quite delicious raw, if a little difficult to clean and therefore sandy.

I recently learned that veggies like turnips and beets must be thinned out early in the season, or they will crowd out one another and reach deeper into the soil, looking more cylindrical like carrots than nice plump turnips. Interesting, I thought to myself, I must remember to share this on my website. And though I am a complete spacecase, here I am, remembering to do so. Success!

When you thin your turnips you end up with these cute widdo fings, awwww, and why let them go to waste when they make such a nice little snack? Coo chee coo chee coo, etc etc.

A few months back I thought it would be cool to experiment with sprouting mung beans and share the process. It’s a pretty simple one: soak beans for about 12 hours, drain, then keep in a jar in the dark for a few days, rinsing every 12 hours or so, until—tada!—bean sprouts.

This method is foolproof only if you possess an innate ability to plan ahead and are able to couple that with a daily attention to detail.

Unfortunately, I possess neither. I am, however, completely in love with this specific colour.

So I tried to sprout these TWICE, and each time made it to the point where things were looking promising.

And then both times, I forgot about the damn things in my cupboard until they were oversprouted and bitter and not very edible.

And even though they weren’t edible, they were so pretty.

Good news, though! Steph of ::steph chows:: did a nice little writeup of her far more successful experience with mung beans, which echoed much of the research I had done in sprouting my own.

Here’s hoping I’m a better farmer in my CSA’s fields this summer, eh?

So if you’re not the comment-reading type, you may have missed this awesome comment from Jasmine, who, rather than pontificating from the opposite side of the globe about how to sprout mung beans, actually hails from that side of the globe and shared some excellent knowledge:

Hi! Here in asia we call these mung beans “green beans”, and use them to make sweetened, ‘cooling’ soups to ward off the heat of summer. Job’s tears (we call them “barley”) and mung beans, together with sugar and some fragrant pandan leaves, put into a pot and on a slow boil will make this humble beverage.

We also sprout mung beans until they are about 2 inches long — they are called “beanstalks” and added into clear soups or sauteed (you may have seen them in “chow mein” or fried noodles). Although you can buy these from your local Chinese grocer’s, I imagine. We sprout them by getting cotton wool (the kind you use for your face will do), soaking it in water and putting those little beans in them, near the sun. Water daily and they’ll grow!

Addendum
Oh, sorry to mention — I’m from Singapore … and here are some local dishes where mung bean sprouts are used!

http://www.noobcook.com/2008/03/11/bean-sprouts-with-salted-fish/

I love reading Omnomicon because I really see what people on the other side of the world is eating! (sorry if all that I’ve said is super ass-vicey)

Jasmine, your comments are not only welcome, but TOTALLY appreciated! And it goes without saying that Omnomicon loves having you for a reader, much of my aim is to gather all kinds of different perspectives on the food I present!

I have an interest in food cultures outside the US (and even outside my little corner of the country), but unfortunately it’s difficult for me to know that the info I am able to gather is even remotely accurate. Next time I’m whipping up a batch of Pho, I’m totally going to try Jasmine’s suggestion. Thanks again, you’re a doll!